The CFEMEA was founded in July 1989 in order to fight for full citizenship for women, for equitable and solidary gender relations, and for a just and democratic society and state. It is an organization of civil society, a nongovernment, feminist, and public nonprofit entity. Led by a collective team of women, the Center’s headquarters is located in Brasilia.

The Feminist Center’s defining characteristic is working together with the Legislative. It acts in a democratic, nonpartisan, and autonomous manner and is committed to the women’s movement. It is a pioneering organization in monitoring legislative proposals and in providing consulting services to parliamentarians on matters concerning gender equity and defending the rights of women conquered by the Federal Constitution. It aims to concretize those rights through regulatory legislation and to give them broader scope. CFEMEA’s role of accompanying the legislative process has been officially authorized by the steering committees of the Federal Chamber of Deputies and the Senate since 1993.

As a result of this decade-long work in conjunction with the National Congress, the CFEMEA has become a national and international reference center. Women’s groups and parliamentarians, the media, students and researchers, and government entities and international agencies regularly approach it with requests.

Since 1992 the Feminist Center has been working on the Women’s Rights in Law and in Life Program.. Starting in 1995 this work took the form of pressing for implementation of the Beijing’95 and Cairo’94 Platforms in Brazil. The Program is based on the following action lines: Advocacy, Advisory Services, Communication, and Networking. To carry out this work the Program relies on support from international cooperation organizations. The “Women’s Rights” Campaign was initiated in 1998 with support from the United Nations and collaboration from private initiatives and the public.

Main Components:

Accompanying the National Congress

Monitoring proposals before the Federal Legislative and raising awareness of parliamentarians and legislative advisors about the importance of incorporating a gender perspective in the elaboration of legislation. It also includes pressing for implementation of public policies concerning women’s citizenship, through allocation of resources in the Federal Budget and auditing of the decisions of the Executive Branch. This work is carried out in close association with the Feminist Caucus of parliamentarians and with Standing and Temporary Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate.

Networking with the Women’s Movement

Networking with and providing advisory services to women’s organizations and networks across the country on maters concerning the legislative process. Special attention is given to feminist groups and NGOs; to women organized in unions, political parties, and neighborhood associations; to groups of rural women, black women, and domestic workers; to university groups involved in studies and research on women and gender; to Women’s Rights Councils; and to national and international networks and forums of the movement. This involves communication and linking up with other NGOs, civil society organizations, and government and international organizations committed to democracy and human rights.

Democratization of Information

Sharing and democratizing information about the Legislative and the feminist struggle, as well as promoting discussion about women’s citizenship and gender equity. The CFEMEA publishes an information bulletin Fêmea. Now in its seventh year of publication, Fêmea has a monthly run of 6,000 copies. It is distributed at no charge to more than 1,000 women’s groups throughout the country and to all parliamentarians and consultants in the Legislative. The Center has to its credit a range of studies and publications, notably the Guia dos Direitos da Mulher (1995) (Women’s Rights Guide).

Women´s expressions and contributions to Brazilian society, although significant, are not received with respect and social recognition. Women participate in creating the country’s wealth but find themselves practically absent from positions of power and decision-making in the public sphere. However, they are responsible for socialization of children, and almost exclusively so.

• Women make up 50.7% of the Brazilian population (IBGE/96).
• Women constitute 49.8% of the electorate (TSE/98).
• Women make up 40.1% of the economically active population (PNAD/96-97).
• In six metropolitan regions women worker’s income is 38% less than men’s (IBGE/96).
• Women head up 20.8% of families (IBGE/96).
• Women make up only 6.1% of the National Congress (30 Federal Deputies and 6 Senators). They constitute 10% of State Assemblies (105 State and District Deputies). This representation, although reduced, is significant compared with other state powers, the Executive and the Judiciary.
• Physical, sexual, and psychological violence permeates women’s lives.
  • Women comprise 63% of victims of physical aggression committed by relatives in domestic settings. (PNAD/88).
  • In 1996, companions or ex-companions were responsible for 72.3% of murders of women (MNDH).
  • Each year at least 2500 women are killed in crimes of passion and nearly 500,000 suffer from some kind of domestic and/or sexual violence (Women’s Union/União de Mulheres-SP/98 estimate).
  • 52% of economically active women have been sexually harassed (ILO estimate/97).
• Women’s precarious sexual and reproductive health
  • 40.1% of women between 15 and 49 years of age who live within a marriage arrangement have been sterilized (PNDS/96).
  • 14% of expecting women have no pre-natal attention (PNDS/96).
  • Nearly one million adolescents (12-19 years) become mothers every year (IBGE/WHO).
  • 36.4% of all births are cesarean by cesarean section (PNDS/96).
  • Maternal mortality is 134 deaths for 100,000 live births (MS/95). A woman dies in Brazil every two hours from pregnancy complications.
  • It is estimated that 1,400,000 clandestine abortions are performed annually (The Alan Guttmacher Institute/94). Abortion constitutes the fourth most significant cause of maternal mortality.
  • In 1985 the proportion of men to women with HIV/AIDS was 28 to 1. In 97/98 it was 2 to 1 (MS-DST/AIDS).

The decade of the seventies is a milestone for the women’s movement in Brazil, times which saw the rise of feminist currents and women’s groups struggling for re-democratization of the country and for improving the Brazilian population’s living and working conditions. International Women’s Year was celebrated in 1975 around the globe and the I World Conference on Women took place, sponsored by the United Nations Organization, the UN. The Decade of Women was launched.

At the end of the seventies and during the eighties the movement broadened and diversified, extending itself into political parties, unions, and community associations. With the accumulation of discussions and struggles the Brazilian state and federal and state governments recognized the specificity of the feminine condition. They hosted proposals from the movement for changes in the Federal Constitution and in public policies aimed at confronting and overcoming the privations, discrimination, and oppression women have lived through.

For example, the creation of Women’s Rights Councils, special police stations for women, specific Integral Health programs, and programs for prevention of and care for women victims of sexual and domestic violence.

In the nineties the social movement of women took on broader scope and innumerable NGOs (nongovernment organizations) arose. This led to a diversity and plurality of projects, strategies, and organizational themes and forms. Professionalization and specialization of NGOs was also noted.

New structural and mobilization forms were also consolidated in that decade, based in the creation of sectoral, regional, and national networks - for example, the Concerted Action of Brazilian Women (AMB), the National Feminist Network on Health and Reproductive Rights (RedeSaúde), networks of rural and urban women workers, women researchers, religious women, Black women, lesbians, and others.

In parallel, campaigns were also launched, such as the Women Unafraid of Power campaign, aimed at stimulating and supporting women’s participation in the 1996 municipal elections; the For Women’s Life campaign to maintain the right to abortion as indicated in the Brazilian Penal Code (where the pregnant woman’s life is at risk or where pregnancy results from rape); the campaign for establishing regulations for abortion services in the public health system for cases envisaged in the law; and the Women’s Human Rights campaign marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The movement in that decade deepened its relations and dialogue with the Legislative and the Executive Branches; and to a lesser degree with the Judiciary. This was the case both with the passing of legislation to regulate constitutional dispositions and with implementation of public policies to improve women’s situation and prospects for equity in gender relations.

Brazilian women, as members and as representatives of organizations of the women’s movement, are linked with and tuned into the international women’s movement, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. The women’s movement participated in and contributed to the great international forums, for example the world conferences of the UN - on Human Rights (Vienna-1993), on Population and Development (Cairo-1994), and on Women, Equality, Development and Peace (Beijing-1995); and the International Convention for the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Belém, Pará state, 1994), sponsored by the Organization of American States (OAS).

The Brazilian women’s movement is also participating in a process of evaluating the Cairo and Beijing Conferences and their outcome, a process that will conclude in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

The “feminist project” is a historic world-wide construct to which women across the planet have contributed in an ongoing way at all times. At the end of the XX century this project displays its most advanced features, transforming itself into a universal and civilizing project of all humanity and not just of women and their organizations. Although pluralistic and essentially dynamic, the project is based on such values as:

• women’s rights
• equal rights and opportunities for women and men
• equitable gender relations
• sexual rights and reproductive rights
• respect for ethnic-racial, religious, and political diversity
• a just and hospitable society

Strategies for implementing feminist projects are also multiple and diverse. However some essential lines can be sketched:

• strengthening women’s organizations
• transforming gender equity proposals into public policies
• incorporating a gender perspective into legislation and public policies
• deepening the dialogue between the state and civil society
• democratizing social management

The legislative power in Brazil has become the most sensitive branch to the struggle for women’s citizenship and for equity in gender relations. Today this is not just a struggle of organized Brazilian women, but of all citizens, men and women, and democratic sectors who want to build a just and humane society.

The great milestone concerning elaboration of legislation was the 1988 Federal Constitution. It accepted equality of rights and obligations between men and women in society and, explicitly, within conjugal relationships. Our rights were assured, for example: the right to family planning, to protection against family violence, to paternal leave, to child-care and pre-school centers, and to protection of women in the labor market. As well, common-law marriage was recognized as a family nucleus and discrimination against children born out of wedlock was proscribed. However some conquests still have to be backed up with regulatory legislation or through their incorporation into specific codes (the civil code, the penal code, the civil and penal process code, and labor laws and regulations).

Going beyond that work, the Legislative still has to assure resources from the Federal Budget to allow for implementation of public policies to sustain programs, instruments, and measures necessary for confronting and overcoming abuses and inequalities in the gender domain. Without resources Women’s Rights in Law cannot be transformed into Women’s Rights in Life.

Lastly, a third front of work for the Legislative that is particularly expressive for women’s movement organizations - auditing of decisions of the Executive Branch, especially to see if they affirm women’s citizenship and equity in gender relations.

The capacity and potential of the Legislative Branch to establish the agenda for the actions of the Executive and Judiciary are immense and should be fully exercised. In the last analysis, the Legislative should not limit itself to including in the National Congress agenda the theme of women’s citizenship and of equity in gender relations; in tune with democratic and social aspirations, it should also promote this theme in the sphere of the other branches of state.

The 1995-99 legislative term consolidated the inclusion of the theme of women’s rights and equity in gender relations in the National Congress agenda, albeit not in any privileged way. The demand for their inclusion raised by organizations of the women’s movement gained force beginning with the Constituent Assembly process.

The advances gained are the fruit of ongoing dialogue with the Legislative, through the joint and productive work of women’s movement organizations, Women’s Rights Councils, the Feminist Caucus, and aware parliamentarians committed to the citizenship of women and to equal rights and opportunities for women and men in Brazilian society.

A part of the women’s movement agenda was included in the National Congress agenda for the 95-99 legislative term, as evidenced by approval of laws and actions carried out. Moreover, more than 200 proposals dealing with this theme were dealt with in the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate.

Approval of 13 laws and budgetary amendments, including:

• Law 9.278/96 – regulating common-law marriage as a family entity
• Law 9.263/96 – regulating family planning. The right to voluntary sterilization of women and men is won in August 1997, overturning Presidential vetoes of the law
• Laws 9.100/95 and 9.504/97 – establishing minimum and maximum quotas by sex for candidates in elections of municipal council members and of State and Federal Deputies, respectively
• Approval of amendments to the Multiannual 1995-1999 Plan and to the Federal Budget, on matters concerning women’s citizenship (97, 98, 99)

Events carried out

• Sessões Solenes de Comemoração do Dia Internacional da Mulher – 8 de março (95, 96, 97, 98)
• Standing and Temporary Committee Public Hearings (95,96,97, 98)
• Debate on the Vatican, Catholicism, and Reproductive Health Policy (96)
• Seminars on Women in the World of Work (96 and 97)
• Seminar on The Long History of Noncompliance with the Law (97)
• Debate on the Legislative’s role in implementing the Cairo ’94 resolutions (97)
• II Interprofessional Forum on Legal Abortion Services (97)
• Seminar on Women’s Human Rights and Violence in the Family – concrete measures for preventing and combating domestic violence (98)
• Setting up the Special Committee to study legislative measures to implement in Brazil the IV World Conference on Women recommendations (97)
• Setting up a Chamber of Deputies General Committee on Legal Abortion (97)

By the end of the 1995-99 legislative term two hundred proposals dealing with women’s rights and gender equity were under process in the National Congress. Most were draft laws. Some draft bills remain under discussion; others may be re-introduced, and new ones should be introduced in the new Congress.

In addition to a revision of all legislation outside the Constitution in order to eliminate terms and notions discriminatory to women and in order to attune legislation to the Federal Constitution, the agenda also envisages reforms to the Civil and the Penal Codes. Following that, some proposals have been listed on Women’s Human Rights and Citizenship that merit special attention. Gains won cannot be given up. They require continuity and need to be deepened.

Civil Rights

• free DNA tests to determine paternity for low-income people
• legal guarantee that refusal by a supposed father to submit to a DNA test will be taken as tacit admission of paternity
• regulating civil partnerships between persons of the same sex
• regulating surgery for sex change; persons who have undergone transsexual surgery should have the right to change their names

Mental and Physical Integrity and Confronting Violence

• crimes against sexual freedom are considered to be crimes against the individual
• regulatory legislation against domestic and sexual violence involving sanctions and measures for prevention and eradication
• assuring physical and psychological care in the public health system for victims of domestic and sexual violence

Sexual and Reproductive Health

• right to sex education in the schools
• the right to self-determination of sexuality; no discrimination because of sexual orientation
• regulating care in cases of legal abortion by the public health system
• restorative breast surgery in cases of mutilation resulting from cancer treatment by the public health system
• regulating techniques and ethical standards for Assisted Human Reproduction
• guaranteed reproductive rights, the right to choose whether or not, and when, to have children

Work

• protection of women’s labor market
• regulating conditions of domestic work
• temporary job security for the pregnant woman and her companion
• the right to maternity, paternity, and adoption leaves
• guaranteed access to day care and pre-school

Power

• guaranteed minimum and maximum quotas by sex for candidates in legislative elections
• guaranteed equitable participation of women and men in power spaces of the Executive and Judiciary

The Feminist Center for Studies and Advisory Services - CFEMEA - hopes that this pamphlet will contribute information and reflection to the dialogue between one of the state branches– the Legislative – and one of the powers of organized civil society – the women’s movement.

The National Congress has had a more than 40% turnover of parliamentarians in the new legislative term (February 1999 to January 2003). This makes it necessary to have new discussions and forge new links. We hope to count on new support in this struggle. We hope to go beyond winning concrete improvements in women’s living conditions and daily relationships, to see Brazilian society advance towards more humane civilizing patterns.

Ours is a special time. The tasks we have taken on, be they representative or participatory, historically dated or timeless, collective or individual, charge us with responsibility for accompanying the end of the century. Let the turn of the millennium express and produce multiple changes: in prejudices; in violence; in privations and inequalities.

This horizon must be built collectively, manifesting itself in joint work carried out with more than a little determination, competence and ethics; and likewise with creativity, pleasure, and personal development.

Below are some references about the struggle to build women’s citizenship and equity in gender relations:

Articulação de Mulheres Brasileiras – AMB
(Concerted Action of Brazilian Women)
Phone: Executive Secretariat – (61) 328-1664
E-Mail: articulação@cfemea.org.br

Rede Nacional Feminista de Saúde e Direitos Reprodutivos
(National Feminist Network on Health and Reproductive Rights)
Phone: (11) 813-9767
E-Mail: redesaude@uol.com.br

Católicas pelo Direito de Decidir – CDD
(Catholic Women for the Right to Choose)
Phone: (11) 3107-9038
E-Mail: cddbr@ax.apc.org

Fórum de Mulheres Negras de Belo Horizonte/MG
(Belo Horizonte Black Women’s Forum)
E-Mail: fatimao@medicina.ufmg.br

Bancada Feminina no Congresso Nacional
(National Congress Feminist Caucus)
Phone: Chamber of Deputies – (61) 318-5151
Federal Senate – (61)311-4141

Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher – CNDM
(National Women’s Rights Council)
Phone: (61) 218-3150
E-Mail: cndm@mj.gov.br

Comissão Nacional de População e Desenvolvimento – CNPD
(National Commission on Population and Development)
Phone: (61) 315-5120
E-Mail: cnpd@ipea.gov.br